Wood Burning Fireplace Doors

Thank you for shopping with Brick-Anew!  Our expert team has designed beautiful fireplace doors for your wood burning fireplace.  Keep reading for a little more info about them.

Glass Doors for Wood Burning Fireplace

We build all our fireplace doors using tempered glass.  Tempered glass is durable and resists high heat.  If it does break, it shatters into small, relatively harmless pieces.  Fireplace doors can also be made of ceramic glass.  Ceramic glass is almost three times the price of tempered glass, but it can withstand hotter temperatures.  When ceramic glass breaks, it breaks into shards with jagged edges in a variety of sizes.

Can You Close the Doors on Your Wood Burning Fireplace?

While tempered glass can resist high temperatures, closing the doors on your fireplace will trap all the heat inside the firebox.  This heat trap causes the fire to get extraordinarily hot.  Tempered glass cannot withstand such high temperatures.  Your tempered glass will crack if you close your doors while your fire is burning.

Some ceramic glass doors may be able to withstand the high heat created by leaving the fireplace doors closed.  This heat resistance might make you think ceramic glass is a better option.  However, the experts at Brick-Anew agree that tempered glass is a better, safer option as long as you leave the doors open while you’re burning in the fireplace.

The experts at Fast Replacement Glass agree.  They say, “Tempered glass can only withstand temperatures up to 400 degrees F…While wood burning fireplace doors are approved to accept tempered glass, other heating applications must have ceramic glass for their doors due to the high temperatures they emit.”  If you have a wood stove and have to keep the door closed, ceramic glass is a good choice.  For traditional fireplace doors, tempered glass is the right decision.

Tinted Glass Fireplace Doors

The tint of your fireplace doors is also an important consideration.  Many of Brick-Anew’s models offer three different glass tints.  While clear glass doors may be appealing, wood burning fireplaces tend to build up with ashes and charred wood.  A tinted glass color helps to hide this ash.  A clear glass will show off your dirty firebox all day long.

Safety

While you should not close your fireplace doors while the fire is burning, once all the flames have died down, you can close your doors.  You can leave your flue open to allow the smoke from the embers to go outside but close your doors to keep cold air from getting inside your home.  The doors also prevent ash and embers from blowing out into your home during the night.  You can go to bed with peace of mind as soon as the flames are gone without waiting for the whole fire to die down.

Masonry vs Prefab/Zero Clearance

Your wood burning fireplace could be a masonry fireplace or a prefabricated (also called zero clearance) fireplace.  Masonry fireboxes are made of stone or concrete while prefabricated fireplaces are made of metal.  Rap on the walls of your firebox with your knuckles to see what kind of fireplace you have.

Masonry fireplaces accept overlap fit doors.  These doors overlap the edge of the firebox.  Prefabricated fireplace doors only accept inset fireplace doors.  These doors fit just inside the frame of your firebox and are flush with the surround.

When you’re looking at our doors, you’ll notice some state that they are for masonry fireplaces while others state that they are for “Temco” or “Superior.”  These are the manufacturers of prefab doors.  So a door for “Temco” is a door specifically designed to go on a prefab fireplace manufactured by Temco.  See a door you like but the manufacturer is different than yours?  Check out our Prefab Doors page.  Most of our doors have models for multiple manufacturers.

How to Clean Wood Burning Fireplace Glass Doors

The glass on your wood burning fireplace doors may get dirty over time.  For regular maintenance, you can clean it with any mild glass cleaner and a soft cloth or paper towel.  If you haven’t cleaned your doors in a while, you may need to purchase a fireplace door glass cleaner.  Brick-Anew also offers full swing fireplace doors like the Georgian Bifold Masonry Doors below.  These doors can be pulled off the track completely for easy cleaning.

Have questions?  Call our customer service team at (800) 897-7175 or send us an email.  We'd be more than happy to help!